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  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

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About

Genius Annotation

“Telemiscommunications”, an unlikely collaboration between deadmau5 and Heap, conveys moments where you’re not quite able to communicate with your loved one, no matter how hard you try.

With its origins in a deadmau5 demo called “Community Nap”, the song moves like an ambient ocean over heavy piano chords. The collaboration spawned following a short correspondance through emails, after which Heap sang an idea into her phone only to forget about it. Upon receiving another email from Zimmerman asking if she still wanted to collaborate for his upcoming album, Heap set to work and finished writing the song.

As highlighted in the music video, the song depicts a character desperately trying to reach their loved one on the phone. However, due to a series of unfortunate events, whenever they manage their intentions still come out “wrong and awkward”. The concept itself came to Heap from her own personal experience with ex-boyfriend Thomas Ermacora when trying to get in touch with him while on tour.

The video itself was animated by a group of 20 animators chosen by Heap and Zimmerman from an online competition. The 20 animated to a set of frames depicting choreography by Gabriel Ciulli, allowing consistency throughout but also encorporating all of their individual styles together. The team found that, despite initial worries, the contrast in styles one after the other worked really well together.

The song was released in September 2012 as part of Zimmerman’s 6th album. It was then released as the 7th and 5th single from Heap and Zimmerman’s albums respectively with a music video on March 12th 2013. The accompanying making-of documentary was also premiered on YouTube the following month.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Does the song have any alternative artwork?
Genius Answer

For the booklet in the Sparks deluxe box set, there was alternative artwork used featuring a still by animator Eric Funk:

Not replacing the artwork used on any online services, it simply acts as a means by which to streamline the Sparks artworks and give the box set some uniformity.

Who are the animators for the video?
Genius Answer

The animators are:

  • Eoghan Kidney
  • Jake Zhang
  • Alex Aguilar-Rudametkin
  • Eric Spivey
  • Marc Fleps
  • Kat Michaelides
  • Sitji Chou
  • Mayra Hernández Ríos
  • Ewen Farr
  • Eric Funk
  • Rory Waudby-Tolley
  • Dru Henderson
  • Oana Nechifor
  • Paloma Dawkins
  • Djoh Djoh (aka Joe DeMarie)
  • Alexandre Siqueira
  • Stella Salumaa
  • Chris Butcher
  • Ty Coyle

Some of these have profiles listed here as well as links to their own portfolios.

Credits
Primary Artists
Mixing Engineer
Video Creative Direction
Video Project Coordinator
Video Choreographer
Lyricist
Art Direction
Video Editor
Instrumentation
Recorded At
MAU5TRAP, Campbellville, Ontario, Canada; The Hideaway, Havering, East London, UK
Release Date
September 21, 2012
Telemiscommunications Interpolations
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